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Re: Natalie Holloway

Natalee Holloway's father has served papers on her mother seeking to have the teenager, who disappeared during a senior class trip to Aruba in 2005, declared legally dead.

Court papers obtained by ABC News indicate that on April 19, 2011, Dave Holloway signed papers seeking a "petition for presumption of death for persons missing for more than five years." Natalee Holloway vanished on May 30, 2005, more than six years ago, at age 17.

The request was actually filed in probate court on June 21. The court documents state that a hearing on the father's request is scheduled for Sept. 23.

The missing teen's mother, Beth Holloway, spoke briefly to ABCNews.com to say she does not intend to agree to have her daughter declared legally dead.

"No, I want to get to the bottom of what's going on from Dave," she said.

Dave Holloway could not immediately be reached for comment.

The court papers state that Natalee left an estate "estimated to be worth approximately $500 and probably not more."

Natalee Holloway's Dad Wants Her Declared Legally Dead

Beth Holloway has been relentless in her efforts to find out what happened to her daughter, even slipping into a Peruvian prison to confront Joran van der Sloot, the Aruban man suspected of killing Natalee.

At one point, she agreed to a sting, seemingly complying with van der Sloot's demand for cash in exchange for information about the location of her daughter's body. The transaction was monitored by Aruba authorities, but van der Sloot left the island before the FBI filed extortion charges.

Before van der Sloot could be arrested on extortion, he was arrested in Peru and charged with killing a woman, Stephany Flores Ramirez, on May 30, 2010, the fifth anniversary of Natalee's disappearance. He has been in a Peruvian prison since.

Natalee Holloway was on the last day of a graduation trip to Aruba with her senior class at Mountain Brook High School in Alabama when she did not return to her hotel.

She was last seen in a car with several people that included van der Sloot.

Extensive searches were carried out on the island and surrounding waters, often with Beth Holloway pleading publicly for someone to come forward and hectoring officials to keep on searching.

In the years after her disappearance, there have been many false leads for police and false hopes for Beth Holloway.

The case was closed by Aruba police in 2007, but reopened in 2008 after van der Sloot was caught on video telling someone that he disposed of her body.

The mystery was cruelly fueled by van der Sloot, who frequently changed his story. He also denied that he disposed of her body.

The investigation into Natalee Holloway's disappearance was criticized by Beth Holloway as well as other experts.

Aruban officials seemed to have learned from the Natalee Holloway case and were being much more aggressive in this year's probe of another missing American woman, Robyn Gardner of Maryland.

The Natalee Holloway Resource Center, a foundation started after Holloway's disappearance, has been offering help to Gardner's boyfriend, Richard Forester.

"It strikes a chord close to home, because that's where my nightmare began, the day I got the call in 2005," Beth Holloway told ABC News last month. "We want to be a first responder to these families. We want to be there to help them." ~snipped~

You never know just when your post might be that one post that reaches that right person. The one person that might be able to give that little tip that leads to the safe return of someone's loved one, Someones Mom, Someones Dad, Someones Child. Please take a moment to look at all the missing people and share them with your friends and them with theirs. Together WE CAN make a difference!!~Teressa

Re: Natalie Holloway

An Alabama judge signed an order Thursday declaring Natalee Holloway legally dead, attorneys for her family said.

Probate Judge Alan King signed the order after an afternoon hearing in Jefferson County court in Birmingham.

Holloway was 18 when she was last seen in the early hours of May 30, 2005, leaving a nightclub on the Caribbean island of Aruba with Joran van der Sloot and two other men. No one was charged in her disappearance, and her body has never been found.

On Wednesday, van der Sloot -- who was detained twice in connection with Holloway's disappearance but never charged -- confessed in a Lima court to murdering a 21-year-old Peruvian woman five years after Holloway went missing.

Natalee's father, Dave Holloway, filed a petition to declare his daughter dead in June, six years after she went to the Caribbean island with 100 classmates to celebrate their graduation from Mountain Brook High School in suburban Birmingham.

He was present at Thursday's hearing, as was his ex-wife, Beth Holloway. She opposed the move to declare Natalee dead, pointing to a lack of evidence indicating her daughter is deceased and saying in a September statement that she "will always hope and pray for Natalee's safe return."

On Thursday, she told reporters while leaving the courtroom that she was upset by the judge's decision.

"Natalee's father wanted to see this through, and of course it makes me very sad," said Beth Holloway, who now works with groups and families of missing children.

Dave Holloway acknowledged Thursday that the ruling is "tough," though he said he's considered it a possibility ever since the FBI told him 10 days after his daughter went missing that they were approaching her case as a homicide.

"We've been dealing with this death for the last six and a half years," he told reporters Thursday. "Hopefully, this meeting today will (provide) some closure."

In a hearing in September, King ruled the petition could go forward, according to CNN affiliate WBRC.

At that time, King ruled that a notice of presumption of death must be published in a local newspaper for two successive weeks, followed by a 12-week time frame to submit any evidence the teen is still alive, WBRC said. Barring any such evidence, the judge would then be able to declare Natalee Holloway dead.

Dave Holloway explained that, barring his daughter miraculously being found alive, that a decision like the one issued Thursday had to be issued "eventually."

His attorney, Mark White, previously said that the order -- which acts as a death certificate -- will help resolve the estate of Natalee Holloway, who still has a small college fund in her name and is listed as a participant and beneficiary on her father's health insurance.

Now was the proper time to pursue this action, said Dave Holloway, given his desire to take "care of some needs" and van der Sloot's conviction earlier this week.

"I was in a situation where a lot of things came together, with the criminal element as well as having to take care of business," he said.

The 24-year-old Dutch national could be imprisoned for as many as 30 years when he is sentenced Friday, two days after he pleaded guilty to all the charges against him in the killing of a Peruvian woman in 2010.

Investigators believe van der Sloot killed Stephany Flores after she found something related to the Holloway case on van der Sloot's computer as she visited with him in his hotel room.

Van der Sloot also faces possible extradition to the United States. In June 2010, a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted him on charges of wire fraud and extortion after allegations surfaced that he tried to extort $250,000 from Holloway's mother. Van der Sloot offered to provide what turned out to be bogus information about the whereabouts of Natalee Holloway's remains in exchange for the money, according to the indictment.

He was allegedly given a total of $25,000, and authorities believe he used that money to travel to Peru and participate in a poker tournament, where he met Flores.

Peggy Sanford, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office for north Alabama, said that there's no timetable as to when federal authorities will seek to bring van der Sloot to the United States for prosecution.

"We want Joran van der Sloot to face the charges here, and we are prepared to try him as soon as we can get him to the United States," Sanford said. "Right now, we don't know when that will be." ~Snipped~

You never know just when your post might be that one post that reaches that right person. The one person that might be able to give that little tip that leads to the safe return of someone's loved one, Someones Mom, Someones Dad, Someones Child. Please take a moment to look at all the missing people and share them with your friends and them with theirs. Together WE CAN make a difference!!~Teressa

Re: Natalie Holloway

The mother of Natalee Holloway is suing The National Enquirer, saying the tabloid published untrue stories to profit from her daughter's 2005 disappearance in Aruba.

Beth Holloway said in the lawsuit filed Wednesday that the magazine and its publisher, American Media Inc., published "false headlines, articles and statements" for nearly seven years.

"They keep on doing it," said Lin Wood, the attorney for Beth Holloway. "We had no choice but to file this lawsuit. This is a mother who has exercised every effort to make sure her daughter is alive."

Natalee Holloway was 18 years old when she vanished during a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba. She was last seen leaving a bar the morning of May 30, 2005 with Joran van der Sloot, a Dutchman who was raised in Aruba.

Holloway's body was never found and the ensuing searches for her would create intense media scrutiny and worldwide attention. In January, a judge declared Holloway dead.

Wood said Beth Holloway hopes her daughter is still alive. But if Natalee Holloway is not, Wood said, the mother believes Van der Sloot is responsible for her daughter's death, saying the "evidence is overwhelming" against him.

Van der Sloot is the prime suspect in Holloway's unsolved disappearance. He faces extortion and wire fraud charges in Alabama in connection with Holloway's unsolved disappearance in Aruba exactly five years before he killed Peruvian college student Stephany Flores after meeting her in a Lima casino.

Van der Sloot pleaded guilty in January in Peru to killing the 21-year-old Flores.

The lawsuit mentions several articles, including one that claims van der Sloot had a "secret hand-drawn" map to Holloway's grave. The lawsuit also claims the magazine knew statements used in stories were false when they were published.

A call to Boca Raton, Fla.-based American Media Inc. was not immediately returned.

"Defendants purposely avoided learning the truth by, among other things, failing to attempt to interview many individuals who could confirm or deny the things stated in the headlines, articles, and statements and captured in the photographs," the lawsuit said.

You never know just when your post might be that one post that reaches that right person. The one person that might be able to give that little tip that leads to the safe return of someone's loved one, Someones Mom, Someones Dad, Someones Child. Please take a moment to look at all the missing people and share them with your friends and them with theirs. Together WE CAN make a difference!!~Teressa